Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (unaudited) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2018	Mar. 31, 2017
Income Statement [Abstract]
Revenue (notes 3, 5 and 16)	$ 4,156.1	$ 3,519.0
Operating costs and expenses (exclusive of depreciation and amortization, shown separately below):
Programming and other direct costs of services	1,002.6	812.0
Other operating (note 12)	608.5	520.1
Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) (note 12)	691.9	619.7
Depreciation and amortization	1,296.4	1,128.3
Impairment, restructuring and other operating items, net (note 13)	63.6	11.8
Operating costs and expenses, Total	3,663.0	3,091.9
Operating income	493.1	427.1
Non-operating income (expense):
Interest expense	(487.8)	(453.2)
Realized and unrealized losses on derivative instruments, net (note 6)	(300.3)	(241.8)
Foreign currency transaction gains (losses), net	(30.5)	64.4
Realized and unrealized gains (losses) due to changes in fair values of certain investments and debt, net (notes 5, 7 and 9)	(57.2)	94.4
Losses on debt modification and extinguishment, net (note 9)	(2.6)	(45.3)
Share of losses of affiliates, net (note 5)	(36.5)	(15.7)
Other income, net	9.3	16.0
Non-operating income (expense), Total	(905.6)	(581.2)
Loss from continuing operations before income taxes	(412.5)	(154.1)
Income tax expense (note 10)	(766.1)	(102.2)
Loss from continuing operations	(1,178.6)	(256.3)
Loss from discontinued operations, net of taxes (note 4)	0.0	(10.9)
Loss from continuing operations	(1,178.6)	(267.2)
Net earnings attributable to noncontrolling interests	(7.9)	(53.0)
Net loss attributable to Liberty Global shareholders	$ (1,186.5)	$ (320.2)
Basic and diluted loss from continuing operations attributable to Liberty Global shareholders per share (notes 1 and 13) (in dollars per share)	$ (1.47)	$ (0.35)
Weighted average ordinary shares outstanding - basic and diluted (in shares)	807,879,932	890,464,735